Letting Roman Catholics Off the Hook

Posted January 4th, 2010 by Loren Seibold

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By Loren Seibold

For over a century, even before the publication of The Great Controversy,
we Adventists have regarded the Roman Catholic Church leadership, typified in
the first beast of Revelation 13, as our arch-nemesis, our bęte noire, the enemy that takes the evil part in the apocalyptic scenario against God's remnant.

Here are seven reasons why it may be time to question them in that role.

1. More than a hundred years have passed since our
prophet approved these prophetic applications. Ellen
White expected Jesus to return long before this.1
We're not sure why that hasn't happened. But isn't it possible that some
details of the apocalyptic scenario set out in the 1890s may have changed by
the 2010s? It happened to Israel. Not all of the original Old Testament
prophecies about them and their role came to pass. We call it "conditional
prophecy."

2. Principles might be more diagnostic than players. That we
oppose those who would legislate matters that should be left to an individual's
conscience is a principle I value, and I'm proud of Seventh-day Adventist
efforts to protect religious liberty. But if it should happen that someone
other than the Roman Catholic Church begins to act like the beast of Revelation
13, we will be more ready to respond if we are watching for a violation of the principle than if waiting for one
specific group to offend.

3. Ellen White fingered Catholicism in a very different
world. Historians have shown that 19th-century American
anti-Catholicism grew out of a general anti-immigrant nativism.2 In an era when we have had and could
again have a liberty-loving Roman Catholic president, when Catholic immigrants
have become our young work force, why can't we preach the gospel without
identifying Roman Catholicism as Satan's exclusive tool?

4. The Roman Catholic Church of today is a much
different institution than it was during Ellen White's time. The
Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (1962-1965) radically altered that
denomination's theology and practices. Vatican II declared the gospel central
to church theology, made worship accessible, denied that Roman Catholics only
can be saved, encouraged lay Bible study, and affirmed religious liberty. While
not quite a Protestant Reformation, today's Catholic Church is not the same
Catholic Church referenced in our 19th-century eschatological
studies. Among other things, the Second Ecumenical Council weakened Vatican
authority over world Catholics-as evidenced by the 78 percent of American
Catholics who oppose their church's ban on contraception.3

5. By focusing on Roman Catholicism, we may miss more
dangerous anti-Christian opponents. Far more Christians have been
killed, persecuted, or denied their religious liberty by Communism, military
Fascism, and Islamist extremism in the past century than by Roman Catholics;
we've let these pass with minimal comment (in the case of Naziism, even
offering some pusillanimous cooperation) as we continued to warn against the
pope. Today religious liberty still has more dangerous enemies than
Catholicism–in the United States, perhaps even some of our fellow conservative
Protestants.

6. God has given us time to become a world church, and
that changes the cast of characters in our eschatology. The
"antichrists"-opposers of Christ–to many of today's world Christians are
radical imams or cruel dictators. One site of Christian persecution right now
is northern Nigeria, where Muslims burn churches and kill Christians.4An eschatology that expects
only Roman Catholics to initiate religious oppression, only in the United
States, and only around the Sabbath question, may fail to speak prophetically
should apocalyptic markers appear elsewhere.

7. Religious liberty has arguably improved in countries
where Catholicism has influence. During my lifetime, the papacy
has frequently been a force for peace and freedom. Pope John Paul II opened the
first breach in the Iron Curtain, and Catholics have been more forthright in
speaking against violence and oppression than many of our fellow conservative
Protestants. Consider the irony that our evangelists are employing
anti-Catholic teachings for soul winning in countries where the papacy helped
win them that freedom! (And the even greater irony that some of us still think
that calling the Pope the Antichrist is necessary to win souls to Christ.)

Of course, we don't give the Roman
Catholic church a free pass; we subject it to the same Biblical scrutiny we
would any other influential world power. (And while we're at it, we'd do well
always to scrutinize ourselves by the same metrics we use on others–which is
Jesus' advice, not mine.5)

But perhaps we needn't single out
Roman Catholicism any longer. Ellen White, who was often more flexible than her
followers, wrote: "God wants us all to have common sense, and He wants us to
reason from common sense. Circumstances alter conditions. Circumstances change
the relation of things."6

Roman Catholicism has served us
well as an enemy: provocative enough to keep us energized, yet doing minimal
actual damage to us. Such an important enemy made us feel significant, "in the
know," and in control, while not really disturbing our lives.

Opposing current enemies might thrust us into prophetic roles that take more
commitment and action. My friend Bert B. Beach, speaking of Adventist
eschatology, once said to me: "I'm suspicious when people are constantly
focused on what's going to happen in the future. I think they're trying to
avoid dealing with what's going on right now."

I think Bert is on to something.
Could we become as enthusiastic in taking on the religious persecution that's
happening to Christians right now, in
places like Nigeria, as we've been in accusing Roman Catholicism of planning to
someday persecute us here?
-Adventist
today magazine Jan. 04, 2010